Like Italy, Germany during the late nineteenth century became a unified country through a nationalistic linkage of what were earlier individual duchies or states which were largely monarchies undergoing late industrialization. Leaders had great wealth and political power and great collections of art and objects. Indeed it was in the late eighteen hundreds that the academic discipline of art history and archaeology were begun in various universities in Germany; there existed a discipline that would eventually spread to the UK and United States between the Great War and WWII with the emigration of German art historians. So there existed great collections and architecture to house them whether museums or palaces. With the destruction of the Berlin wall (1961-1989) and the  unification of Germany, a new concentration on the arts and civic life continued through the construction of new architecture and monuments as a celebration of this newly unified Germany in Berlin and Dresden.

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On this 7 day trip our base shall be Berlin with a day trip to Dresden and Potsdam, the former considered to be "the Florence on the Elbe" and the Baroque capital of Saxony (ruled by the Electors of Saxony) which had to be rebuilt after WWII. However, the porcelain, painting, and other collections in Das Zwinger and other repositories, remain. Potsdam, on the Northern border of Berlin was the summer palace and garden retreat for the Kings of Prussia and the home also of the studios of the great German film industry of the 1920s and 1930s.

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In Berlin we shall visit contemporary architecture by Sir Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, Mies van der Rohe, Frank Gehry and Daniel Liebeskind along with older nineteenth century buildings of Karl von Schinkel. We shall see art from Mesopotamia as well as ancient Greece brought to Berlin and installed on Museum Island by some of the first archaeologists of the late 18th century as well as earlier collections of Baroque and later additions of contemporary collections in the following museums: the Neue Nationalgalerie, the Altes Museum, the Altenationalgalerie, The Charlottenburg Palace, the Hamburger Bauhaus, the private Boros collection in the Bunker, the Gemäldegalerie and perhaps understand historical events of the 20th century better through visits to the Jewish Museum, the Holocaust Memorial, the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, the Reichstag, and the building which housed the Wansee Convention. And of course there is always shopping, and attending the famed Berlin Philharmonic and one of the three world famous operas.

Eight nights and Seven days

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October 6-14 (lectures 7-13)

Hotel de Rome (Rocco Forte Hotel conversion of nineteenth century bank) junior suites (including VAT and breakfast)

Email cwnachmani@aol.com for pricing/availability